Discovery re-jigs India business to focus on audience

Discovery has also partnered with Reliance Jio and Vodafone to offer content on Jio TV and Vodafone Play, respectively. It is also in talks with Airtel for a similar deal.

ET Bureau|

Dec 14, 2017, 05.58 PM IST

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World’s largest factual entertainment company Discovery Communications has re-jigged its India business to sharply focus on mass and premium audiences.

As part of the plan, upcoming general entertainment channel 'Jeet' and kids channel 'Discovery Kids' will target the mass audiences, while to tap premium audience-- which is shifting towards digital platforms for content consumption-- the network is planning to launch multiple theme-based digital channels.

On January 26, the company will launch Veer, first of its kind military-focussed digital channel, followed by Rise by TLC, a dedicated channel for female audiences. In future, it will also launch channels on Auto and Food (post acquisition of Scripps Networks).

The digital channels will be launched on free video streaming service YouTube and social network, Facebook. Discovery has also partnered with Reliance Jio and Vodafone to offer content on Jio TV and Vodafone Play, respectively. It is also in talks with Airtel for a similar deal.

Karan Bajaj, SVP and GM, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, said: “We have identified that the digital viewership of factual entertainment content on TV is much less than viewership on digital platforms. The entire genre has a 2% share on TV, while it constitutes to 15% on digital. We see a big opportunity there and thus pivoting into a digital ecosystem.”

He added that Discovery doesn’t want to play the aggregator game, which attracts 70% of the digital audiences, but would like to target the passionate niche community through digital channels, which constitutes to the remaining 30% audiences.

The move, Bajaj said, will expand the reach of Discovery by three times from current 21 million weekly viewers, while also opening up a new revenue stream.

The channels will offer close to 40 hours of original content each, out of a total 100 hours of content per year. This will include weekly videos of 5-10 minutes and 10-15 minutes, and daily videos of 2-5 minutes each.